Charles Pyndar Beauchamp Walker

Charles Pyndar Beauchamp Walker
General Sir Charles Pyndar Beauchamp Walker
Born	7 Oct 1817 Redland, Bristol, UK
Died	19 January 1894
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

General Sir Charles Pyndar Beauchamp Walker, KCB (7 Oct 1817 – 19 Jan 1894) was a senior officer in the British Army.

He was born the eldest son of Charles Ludlow Walker of Redland, near Bristol, educated at Winchester College and commissioned as an ensign in the 33rd Foot on 27 February 1836.

He was promoted lieutenant in 1839 and captain in 1846. He served with the regiment at Gibraltar, the West Indies and North America before transferring to the 7th Dragoon Guards in 1849. In 1854 he was in the Crimea as Aide-de-Camp to Lord Lucan, commander of the cavalry division. After being present at the battles of Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman, he was transferred aboard ship as ADC to Lord George Paulet and was present aboard HMS Bellerophon for the naval attack on Sebastopol. He was awarded the Crimea Medal with four clasps, the Turkish medal, and the Order of the Medjidie (fifth class).

In 1854 he was promoted major and left the Crimea the following year to serve as Assistant Quartermaster-General (AQMG) in Ireland as a lieutenant-colonel. In 1858 he joined the 2nd Dragoon Guards to help put down the Indian Mutiny, commanding a field force in Oudh which successfully engaged the rebels at Bangaon and seeing action at the Jirwah Pass under Sir James Hope Grant.

In 1860 he was posted to China as AQMG of cavalry in Sir Hope Grant's expedition and was present at the actions of Sinho, Chankiawan, and Palikao, narrowly escaping death in an ambush when reconnoitring for a camp site outside Peking. He become a colonel in the army the same year.

He returned home in 1861 to be AQMG at Shorncliffe Army Camp but in 1865 was appointed military attache to the embassy at Berlin, a post he held until 1876. During the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 and the Franco-German war of 1870-1 he acted as British military commissioner to the Crown Prince of Prussia's army and was present at the battles of Weissenburg, Wörth, Sedan and the Siege of Paris. He was promoted major-general in 1873 and lieutenant-general in 1877.

He left the post in Berlin to be Inspector-General of military education until 1884, when he retired with the honorary rank of full general. He was awarded KCB in 1881 and later that year given the colonelcy of the 2nd Dragoon Guards, a position he held until his death.

He died in London on 19 Jan 1894, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. He had married Georgiana, daughter of Captain Richard Armstrong of the 100th Foot. Extracts from his letters and journals during active service were published after his death under the title ‘Days of a Soldier's Life’ (London, 1894).

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lloyd, Ernest (1899). "Walker, Charles Pyndar Beauchamp". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 45.